▶️ Press Play: An Interview with Aimee Manion
"My long pause gave me time to reimagine my future."
Welcome to The Long Pause, a newsletter about being creative, being stuck, and what to do about it. I’m Erinn. I’m a writer and an artist in a long, long Pause.
Today’s post is part of the Press Play interview series, which asks creative folks to share the story of their Long Pause so we can all learn from each other and stop feeling so shitty and lonely. I think you’ll love getting to know Aimee Manion, her joyful, intricate paintings, and her journey to turn her grief into a successful art career & business! 💖
Explain yourself. Who are you, how do you identify as an artist / creative?
Hello! I’m Aimee. I’m a visual artist, born and raised in Pittsburgh.
I graduated from IUP in 2008 with a BFA in Fine Art (Painting + Fiber Arts) and a BA in Biological Anthropology. I’m primarily a painter, and I’ve worked on lots of different creative projects over the years, including creating custom artwork and murals for local restaurants, hotels, coffee shops, doctor’s offices, and homes. I sell my work at arts festivals and markets during the warm months (all locally) and just started selling art prints to make my work available to a wider audience.
For the past 20 years, I worked a day job in the service industry in addition to my art career, but I recently (as in, last April) quit to focus on my art full time — so that’s where I am right now. And I’ve gotta say, it’s very scary, but also exhilarating, and terrifying, and freeing...it’s a lot of things!
And, so far, through personal commissions and festival sales, I’m making it work. I also make money by restoring vintage and antique enamel signs and interesting old things for collectors. In a lot of ways, I feel like I’m just getting started with my career, even though I started in 2008.
You’re here because you’ve gone through a fallow period where you didn’t produce much work for an extended period. How did your Long Pause come about? How long did it last? OR are you still in it?
I’ve realized while I was writing this that I am still in my Long Pause. But I’m almost out of it! It’s been a gradual exit.
My biggest pause started in May, 2018, when I bought a house in Bellevue with my then (now ex-) husband. We took on the massive project of gutting and restoring a very old 6-bed house ourselves. I decided to put my art career on hold for a few years while we focused on rebuilding the house, which included big plans to create my ‘perfect’ studio on the entire second floor.
By the time we finished remodeling the house a few years later, and my studio was done, our marriage had also come to an end.
So, in the summer of 2022, the second part of my pause began. I had to massively downsize and move into my own apartment (not much space to make art). I was working overtime managing a busy cafe in Sewickley, while grieving the end of my marriage and my financial security, grieving the loss of my home, navigating a divorce, and going out drinking most nights… I was exhausted. I had no time or energy to create, I didn’t even have time or energy to process all the changes that just occurred. I felt like I was sprinting through life in a total daze. All I wanted was to slow the whole world down for a while.
So I quit my job in April 2023, and I’ve been living the slow life ever since then. It’s glorious. And I will not go back. I’m no longer constrained by having to go work for someone else for the majority of my time each week, which means I get to focus on my art and put my energy into my own work. It’s amazing. Scary, but amazing. The process of shifting my priorities has helped me slowly break out of my pause.
What helped you while you were on pause? What didn’t?
After a lifetime of high-achieving and nearly 20 years of racing around busy restaurants taking care of everyone else’s needs, my pause meant—for the first time ever—that I was taking the time and space I needed to take care of my own needs. And what I needed was to chill. Like, for about a year.
There was lots of wall-staring. And learning to let myself just sit and be still, to be ok with that. To be ok with not being “productive,” and to eventually see that sitting and processing are incredibly productive and important! They just aren’t making someone else money.
What about your creative practice feels like magic? What feels like science? Was one aspect more affected by your Long Pause?
I’ve definitely had amazing experiences where I’m completely in the creative flow—where time doesn’t exist, and you feel as if you’re in a different realm. It’s a very magical experience! I’m learning how to have greater access to this flow state by setting myself up for it to happen. It takes conscious effort - it’s a choice to decide to move towards the flow. So I’m finding different ways to get into my creative flow state.
For me, it’s really important to unplug from technology—I turn off my phone, and I don’t bring my laptop to the studio. The studio space is for creating only; I have a separate space where I do the business/computer stuff. This has been the biggest challenge because, as a visual artist and entrepreneur, I feel the pressure to constantly post on social media. Trying to take videos/images of my artistic process really gets in the way of creating. So I’m still trying to figure out how to balance that.
I started watching videos and reading/researching about what other artists do to get past a creative block when I was getting back to painting. One interview with painter Joan Mitchell really stuck with me: she talked about how important it is to show up to the studio and do something—anything—even if you’re not in the mood. Or even if that something is just staring at the painting and thinking. She said that you’ve got to choose to at least show up. Don’t just sit around waiting for inspiration to come to you; you’ve got to show up for the work, show up for yourself. Initiate the flow if you want the muse to visit. Joan also advocated taking a walk every day :)
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How did your Long Pause change your creative practice?
My long pause didn’t have a big effect on my creative practice when it came to painting, but it affected how I saw myself as an artist and as a professional/entrepreneur. It gave me the time I needed to process and heal, to slow down, rest, and just be. My long pause also gave me time to reflect, to reimagine my future and to figure out a new direction. I’m just getting started :)
When the work you do to feed yourself is creative, there can be a pervasive pressure to be productive all the time, and an assumption because your work is creative (i.e. “fun”) you shouldn’t need to rest. How does this kind of capitalist pressure show up for you?
Ok this question really resonates with me, and is definitely the one of the biggest challenges I’m facing as I progress through this last phase of my pause. The pressure to “be productive” has caused me so much stress, anxiety, tension, grief—it’s super paralyzing, which makes it even more frustrating. It’s something I’m still trying to fully understand for myself.
I really believe that true art can not be made with the intention of selling it. If you begin creating something with the main intention of selling it, it is no longer truly art; it is a product. I try not to let the market/audience dictate what my work looks like. But because I’ve committed to making art my business, I need to figure out a way to balance the fact that I need to sell my art for money in order to survive and continue making my art. Ughh I despise capitalism!
I just recently joined Radiant Hall Studios, which has been a game-changer for me. It’s an investment, but the benefits are huge. It’s a collective art studio, so I have lots of studio space and I get to be around other artists I can learn from. And it’s close to home!
I was also looking for support/advice on running an art biz, so I joined a small group of local female business owners called Nestwork. We meet once a month to support one another, learn, share stories, network, and hold each other accountable as we aim to grow our businesses. One thing I’ve been avoiding is facing numbers/ taxes/ finances of my art business—I’ve been totally paralyzed and unable to even write a basic budget, even though I know I’ll feel a lot better once I know the numbers. Through Nestwork, I connected with someone who can help me with the finance stuff, so I feel like things are all falling into place.
There’s a ton of research that connects movement with positive outcomes for creative work. Have you found movement to be a useful part of your practice?
I love this and want to read about the research! Because movement is a really important part of my artistic practice. I take little breaks from painting to do yoga, stretch, and dance around in my studio - it definitely helps get my energy flowing. My paintings are full of movement (and are very much about movement and the flow state) so it makes sense to me that physically moving my body helps get my creative juices flowing.
There’s a lot of rhetoric around “putting in the work” or “being productive” when it comes to creative output that can be helpful in some contexts (think: tracking your progress so you can see small actions add up!), but very unhelpful in this one. What would you say to someone who thinks you can just “snap out of” or “power through” a pause like the one you experienced?
I think there are two aspects to this. Sometimes a harsh kick in the butt like, “You’ve got to just show up and start working, even if you don’t feel like it”— like Joan Mitchell says— is something works for me at the moment, if I’m struggling with procrastination. Sometimes I just need a little shove to get going, and once I start moving, my momentum builds pretty quickly and I can get into the flow. And that harsh message really simplifies the situation for me: just do something. Wiggle a finger, paint a single brush stroke—it doesn’t matter what you do, just that you do a thing.
But this “power through” approach would not have helped me for the majority of my long pause—I needed to slow down and rest. It helps me now, because now I think the thing that I’m fighting against is the fear of my own success; I know I’ve procrastinated some things that could lead to growth. I’m no longer having a creative block, I’m having an “I just want to make my art and not bother with all the other tedious work of running a business” block. So yeah, the transition to capitalism is painful.
But I’m getting there, and finding a balance.
Aimee Manion holds a BFA in Fine Art and a BA in Biological Anthropology from Indiana University of PA (2008). She was born and raised in the northern suburbs of Pittsburgh and works as a freelance artist from her studio at Radiant Hall in McKees Rocks.
Aimee is a freelance artist and has experience working with many different businesses, galleries, schools, and individuals on a wide array of creative projects. Her art can be found in area hotels and restaurants including The Westin, The Wyndham Tryp, Off the Hook, Over Eden, and Bill’s Bar & Burger, and she’s been featured in various publications and galleries across the country. You can find her each summer at the Three Rivers Arts Festival and other arts festivals and markets around Pittsburgh. She has years of experience as a teacher and has taught a variety of art and science classes and summer camps at the Carnegie Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh and at several area K-12 schools.
With the support of RiverLife Pittsburgh, Aimee just completed her first large-scale public art installation at Allegheny Landing Park on the North Shore. She hopes to create more public art in the future. Aimee is a full-time artist, and when she’s not painting, you can find her: doing yoga, sewing, fussing over her houseplants, climbing, cooking, or being a lap for her cat.
Find Aimee online: www.AimeeManion.com | Instagram: @aimeemanion | TikTok: @aimeemanion
Upcoming art shows:
* Saturday, 8/24 - Night Market at Market Square, Pittsburgh (5-10 pm) - with live music by Mr. Smalls Acousticafe (featuring local musicians Gabriella Salvucci, PosterChild & Cisco Kid). This market is run by the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership and features a variety of local vendors.
* Saturday, 9/12 - South Side Arts Festival at Velum Fermentation Brewing, Pittsburgh (12-9 pm). This is the first year ever for the new South Side Arts Festival and I’m super excited to be a part of it!
Nestwork - a local networking/peer support group of women small-business owners, started by Jennifer Onofray of Two Frays Brewing. Instagram: @ournestwork